Visitors come and go but the stall keepers, officials and staffs who manage the bazaar spend long hours at the site, standing in the filths all around, enduring the foul odor they give off. [break]
“It happens every monsoon. When there is excessive rain followed by intense sunshine, the odor wafts so badly that you feel like vomiting,” said Madan Thapa Magar, a parking staff at the bazaar. “There is no proper drainage system, rotten fruits and vegetables are left scattered until they are picked up by garbage trucks."
Making the situation worse, the drainage at the fish selling section of the market is badly chocked since a few days. Visitors try to avoid the lane as much as they can but the 27 stall keepers there seem not much bothered.
“We are used to this. We are only worried about the fact that it might keep buyers from visiting our shops. People avoid this corner after they see the accumulated filthy water,” said Rushdin Musalman, a stall keeper.
Musalman wished that the authority fixed the drainage problem soon so that their business could scale up. “We are already in loss. If they do not fix the drainage soon, the loss will be huge,” he sighed.
According to Nirmala Katuwal, who has been selling vegetables since the last 25 years and owns a stall in the market, said every stall pay Rs 100 to the authority for cleanliness. However, during the rainy season, even the stall keepers expect least about the work done. “Large quantities of vegetables and fruits rot during monsoon. Sometimes when they do not come to pick up the waste even the next day, the situation worsens,” she said, adding that she has not faced any kind of health issues so far despite spending a long time around such filth. “We are immune to such things,” said Katuwal with a hearty laugh.
Binay Shrestha
Senior planning officer
Why is the market so dirty?
We have been doing our best to keep it clean. But once we hand over the responsibility to private contractors, much depends on them. If we do not cooperate, they warn to leave the work and it is not easy to find another party to replace them immediately. On the other hand, the vegetable and fruit market generates large quantity of waste. In rainy season, a lot more wastage is produced. The reason why the situation is worse now is that the contractor has been showing attitude since a few days. They say the amount we pay them is not sufficient. We pay them Rs 200,000 per month.
It is not about the current contractor, the market has hardly been clean even earlier?
It is very easy to blame us. But you see, without cooperation from many concerned groups including the sellers, it is not possible to keep it clean. We run awareness campaign time to time so that the sellers think before recklessly throwing rotten vegetables and fruits in the open. We tell them about the environment and health impacts. However, we have not been able to raise their awareness level. They must also cooperate to improve the situation.
You cannot make the sellers follow rules. You cannot force the contractor to do their job properly. Can we still call you the authority?
We have been trying a lot. There are some other problems. For example, the sewage pipeline was laid many years ago. It needs to be replaced and small budget is not going to be sufficient for that. There are similar other problems.
How many people work in this situation on a daily basis? And what quantity of vegetables and fruit is supplied from here?
There are 600 stalls and each stall has more than one or two staff. There are government staffs. More than 20,000 people come here every day. Around 600 tons of fruits and vegetables are brought here and 10 to 12 percent of that turns into waste every day.
When are you going to fix the drainage problem at the fish market section?
We had tried it even yesterday. It did not work. We too are extremely worried about it. Hopefully, that will be done soon.
VOX POP
Sharada Rai, a restaurant owner
Vegetables are cheaper here if you buy at the wholesale. I have to come here regularly as I run a restaurant. The costs are much higher elsewhere. But please do not talk about the environment here. Look at the housefly all over. It is just like this. Of course, it affects our health. I wonder how the people who work here for hours tolerate it. I don´t know what the management is doing. They can improve the situation step-by-step if the really want. But who cares.
Nabina Shrestha, a vegetable whole seller
Our section is relatively cleaner. If you go to the fish section, you cannot stand the odor at all. It is just like this in the rainy season. But we have no choice other than to bear with the situation. If there was a choice, who would like to live in such a dirty place? Look at the roof; it was damaged in the fire last year. People say it is very risky to work under this roof, but the authority has not done anything about it so far.
Khadka Bahadur, cleaner
I came to Kathmandu in search of work seven months ago. Somebody got me into this job. I clean 11 stalls. They pay me around 200 daily. Sometimes they give me lesser amount. But that is okay for me as I have no family. But as I am unable to save money, I worry what will happen if I fall sick. Last time, my health deteriorated as I worked while it was still raining. I was all soaked. But who would care for me. I had to come to work even when I was not in good health. Had I been absent they would not have paid me the money.
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